HI members. I need some advise on choosing a good preamplifier for a Threshold 400A. At this moment I'm using a Blue circle Despina 3 Preamp I would like something that offer balance inputs for future upgrades to a Threshold SA 4e. Your advise will be highly appreciated. Thanks. Osiris.

Not knowing a budget Pass XP10 if you want to go SS. Tubes ModWright LS36.5 and many ARC preamps will work and sound nice on a Threshold. I'd suggest staying with a tube preamp to match with your SS amp. Sonic Frontiers Line 1 or 2 might be more inline on an older amp as you might be spending too much on a preamp and might not hear what it can really do. I have a Pass so I'm not talking down on the older Thresholds, just guessing you're not wanting to go crazy here. Plenty of nice tube preamps out there. I'm sure you're Blue Circle sounds nice, so you might be spending some to match or better what you already have. I have the ModWright LS36.5 which is a great preamp but it only has one balanced input and output, so if you need more balanced inputs you'll need to look elsewhere. ModWright and Pass together is very musical. Would help to know what you're budget is.

The Threshold SA4e input impedance is only 600 ohms in balanced mode. If you want to run balanced you will most likely need a ss pre. I can't speak for the MW, but the ARC would have to used in single ended mode. It wouldn't be able to properly drive the 4e in balanced mode.

Yup, had an ARC years ago and due to impedance mis matching could not use the XLRs from the ARC to the Thresholds. I’d stick to using RCAs as the Thresholds are not differentially balanced. Still rock nonetheless.

My budget will be $1500.00 to $2000.00. If I find something in the use market based on yours suggestion I will sell the Despina wich is not hard to sell. I would like to stay with tubes Preamps. Thanks for yours inputs. Osiris

I went to a bottlehead Beepre and it is the best sound I have ever heard at any price. Not sure if you can add the balanced or not but I don't really see why that would be important unless you need to run 40' interconnects.